Iranian actor Reza Naji received the silver bear award at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) for his role in ’The Song of Sparrows’.
Directed by Majid Majidi, ’The Song of Sparrows’ also won four awards at the recently concluded 26th Fajr International Film Festival, according to MNA.
In the film, Naji plays the craggy-faced protagonist Karim, who enjoys his work as chief ostrich wrangler at a rural ranch in Shahriyar, west of Tehran. Karim is a loving husband and father of three who is fired from his job when one of the birds runs off into the hills.
Karim commutes to the city and then several incidents occur which greatly affect his life.
Naji also had roles in Majidi’s earlier works including the Oscar nominee ’Children of Heaven’ and ’Baran’.
Naji was also nominated for the best actor award at the recent Fajr Film Festival.
Meanwhile, Hana Makhmalbaf’s ’Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame’ won the crystal bear at the festival’s Youth Generation section.
The 19-year-old director, Makhmalbaf also received Berlinale’s peace award for her film. According to the official release of the festival, “This film is exciting and provocative and at the same time it is very shocking. It is about a six-year old Afghan girl who is struggling to get permission to go to school.
Moreover, Reuters reported that the winner of the golden bear for best film was Jose Padilha’s ’The Elite Squad’, an ultra-violent portrayal of a crack team of Brazilian police who resort to corruption, torture and worse as they fight drug warlords in the Rio slums.
The runner-up jury grand prix award went to Oscar-winning documentary maker Errol Morris for ’Standard Operating Procedure,’ an examination of what went wrong at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq where US soldiers abused prisoners.
’More popular were the silver bear awards for best director, actor and actress.
The director award went to Paul Thomas Anderson for ’There Will Be Blood,’ starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a greedy and determined oil prospector in early 20th Century America.
Britain’s Sally Hawkins was named best actress, as the critics had predicted, for her portrayal of the infectiously optimistic school teacher Poppy in ’Happy-Go-Lucky.’
Best screenplay was won by China’s Wang Xiaoshuai, who wrote and directed ’In Love We Trust,’ about a divorced couple who go to drastic lengths to try and save their sick daughter.
Other highlights in Berlin included Martin Scorsese’s ’Shine a Light,’ a concert film of the Rolling Stones.

Music in the media was reviewed in a meeting attended by artists and a number of cultural officials on Friday.
Speaking at the gathering, Mohammad Sarir, a composer with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB) Music Center, said that music is viewed differently in Iran and each group of audience has its own expectations, which should be respected, reported IRNA.
Head of the IRIB’s Music Center Karam-Reza Piriaei also commented on the policies for music production in media and said that music’s strategy is national-oriented and cannot be limited solely to the activities of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry and IRIB.
Sufficient time should be devoted to the field as this will surely help promote superior music, he said, adding that although many activities were undertaken in line with the advancement of music, none of them managed to attract satisfaction of the event because the view adopted for it is destructive.
A total of 12,000 hours of various music programs are broadcast on TV each year and this reflects the positive view of the organization towards progress in this field of art, he concluded.

A scene from 'Song of Sparrows'

Noted film ’Song of Sparrows’ directed by Majid Majidi has a lot to say to the audience but the most impressive message it conveys is the discard of a famous theory by an English philosopher Thomas Hobbes that ’Man Is a Wolf to Man’.
In his film, Majidi presents an actual image of people coexisting. Those who are apparently worried are, in practice, calm. The film considers humans neither lambs nor wolves; rather they are like birds who make their nests on the jagged, intricate branches of the tree of life, and despite the problems and shortcomings, they make a way to the world of pleasure and sing happily.
Ostrich is a beautiful symbol which was used by the ingenious Iranian director to describe his countrymen. It is both a patient and useful bird.
Following the Iraq-imposed war (1980-1988), the society suffered an impairment which can be interpreted as ’pessimism’. One should accept that the public attitude has greatly been influenced by the English philosopher’s theory. It has largely been believed that humans are wolves for each other rather than sympathizers. Apparently all have become corrupt, embezzlers and imposters.
’Song of Sparrows’ really exposes the fact that image of Iranians has been tarnished. They are not what they are imagined to be. They are humans and altruist.
People of this land are monotheists and believers and this sense of religiousness induces them to refrain from wrongdoings.
Majidi teaches us how to stay away from pessimism and, at the same time, not to close eyes to realities. The noble film presents an image of an earthly paradise which is indebted to human belief and kindness.

A group of Italian financiers have announced readiness to invest $4 billion in Hormuzgan province for constructing hotels and recreational complexes.
Announcing this, Peyman Bayat, an advisor of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization’s Investment Department, told IRNA that the investors have sought constructing structures close to ten kilometers of the coastline along the Persian Gulf from Bandar Abbas to Bandar Lengeh.
“The group has long wanted to invest in Iran. Thus, they have visited various parts of the country,“ he said.
He added that the investors, who recently visited tourist sites in the capital, will start construction operations once the government gives the go-ahead.
Bayat further said that a number of German investors are also eager to invest.

Bahram Radan in a frame from 'Santuri'

The producer of the controversial film ’Santuri’ (The Santur Player) faced the nightmare of piracy when he saw bootleg CDs of the film on sale in Tehran’s black market last week.
“I ask Mehrjuii’s fans not to purchase the CDs, because the film’s (copyright) owners are not pleased with such actions,“ Faramarz Farazmand said in a letter published by ISNA.
He has also asked people to help the police apprehend the illegal distributors, reported MNA.
The bootleg CDs are of high-quality and contain scenes which were cut for its screening at the 25th Fajr International Film Festival, which was held in Tehran in February 2007.
Directed by Dariush Mehrjuii, ’Santuri’ was scheduled to premiere on July 25, 2007, but the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance replaced it on the premiere schedule with Iraj Qaderi’s “The Trial“, without giving any explanation for the decision.
Starring Bahram Radan and Golshifteh Farahani, ’Santuri’ is about a santur virtuoso and singer named Ali who becomes a drug addict.
According to a poll carried out by the 2007 Fajr festival organizers, the film had satisfied 95 percent of the audience. The flick was expected to be a huge box office hit.

Fifth Literary Festival for the Young titled ’Desert Stars’ ended in a ceremony after naming the winners of the event.
According to Fars news agency, in the story section, Fatemeh Qeshmi from Zanjan ranked first while Hamid Bavi-Sajed from Khuzestan, Adel Qolipour from Ardebil and Milad Fattahi from Gilan jointly came second.
Eshrat Os-sadat Mirhosseini from Shahroud, Habibollah Sadeqi from Sistan-Baluchestan and Mahdieh Mohammad-Zamani from Shahroud jointly took the third place.
Parisa Karami from Zanjan and Hamed Hassanpour from Lorestan received an honorary mention.
Mohammad Hossein Nemati from Tehran, Mohammad Javad Shahmoradi from Isfahan and Ali Reza Rajab-Alizadeh from Kashan were selected for the first, second and third places respectively in the classical poetry section.
Special prize for Ashura Poetry also went to Ali Saadat-Shayesteh from Qom.
This is while the panel of jury did not deem any of the entries as eligible for the first prize in the She’r-e Nou (new Iranian poetry style) section. The second prize went to Mohammad Hossein Nemati and Majid Sa’dabadi while Rasool Pireh from Lorestan, Ebrahim Adel-Nia from Ardebil and Samaneh Abedini from Tehran jointly took the third place.
The event was sponsored by Artistic Bureau’s Creativities Center.

Two halls at Azadi Cinema are to feature films on children and young adults as well as documentary and short films, said director of Azadi Cinema Cultural Complex Rahmatollah Mehrabi.
Speaking to Fars news agency, he further said that presently, there are no plans to screen films until technical defects of the building are removed.
To screen films in the movie halls, necessary permits have to be obtained from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and this is a time-consuming process.
After the Norouz celebrations, marking the beginning of the new Iranian year on March 20, one of the halls of the cinema will be devoted for public screening of films.
The film scheduled to be screened have not yet been specified and this depends on the decisions of the Office for Supervision and Evaluation as well as Guild Council.
However, films such ’Simply’ will be given the priority, he concluded.